Zac drove me home later that morning, lending me his Captain America T-shirt and a pair of navy blue gym shorts to wear in place of my alcohol-drenched Halloween costume. I had to cinch the drawstring tightly to keep the shorts from sliding down, but, secretly, I felt somewhat smug about wearing his clothes. Even giddy. Like I was his girlfriend or something. I tried to hold onto this illusion of happiness for as long as I could since the mood in the car had become rather somber. It was a noticeable shift from the, at times, nerve-wracking and, at times, endearing conversation that we just shared in his studio.

We eventually pulled into my driveway. Zac and I sat in his black BMW for several moments. Neither of us spoke. The dynamic between us had changed so rapidly in the past twenty-four hours. I think we both knew, once I stepped out of his car, reality would snap us back to the way things were: Zac would continue going after Lily and I'd keep pretending not to give a shit. As though we hadn't confirmed our feelings for each other barely an hour ago. As though Zac wasn't the first boy to tie my heart in knots only to unravel them again in the sweetest way possible.

I felt almost certain that the "special someone" he had been referring to was me, and I was both charmed and caught off guard by the fact that Zac held onto his V-card even after his life-changing glow up. Despite the new wave of fucked up questions and doubts that were burrowing through my head, I was beginning to care about the guy. More than I wanted to admit. I didn't even know what I planned to do about it. Part of me wanted to say "fuck it," forget about dicks and dudes, and just focus all my time and energy back on school like I had always done, but another part of me, the irrational, emotional side of my brain, was genuinely worried about Zac.

Was he getting in over his head with Lily?

What if there was something I could do to help him?

Then, of course, there was the familiar voice of reason in my head, the one which had helped me make about 99% of my most important decisions in life, that wondered if this whole thing was just another one of his schemes that I had unwittingly fallen into?

Could Zac be trusted?

"Thank you," I said. It seemed to be the only appropriate thing to say in a moment like this. Safe, polite, pleasant. Something that friends would say to one another.

He jerked his chin in acknowledgment. "See you in second hour tomorrow, Cate."

He waited until I unlocked the front door before peeling away with screeching tires. As I set down my keys on the small console table by our entryway, I noticed a female figure in a hoodie tip-toeing down the stairs in a manner that looked suspiciously like a walk of shame. When she saw me, her dark brown eyes widened like a deer in the headlights.

Loudly, I demanded, "Evonne? What the hell are you doing here?"

"Cate!" she gasped, "I, um—"

Trick rushed in from the kitchen. "Whoa, Catie, relax! She's with me.We came back together from the party last night."

I raised my eyebrows. Trick never called me 'Catie' unless he wanted something. He was also a terrible liar. "You weren't even at Aleah's last night, dumbass. Try again."

Trick had decided last minute not to show his face since he was worried about being harassed by our classmates. Talk about the irony of karma. The tables had turned on Trick.

Evonne flew to his rescue. "Trick isn't lying, Cate! He did go to Aleah's party last night to pick me up. He just never got out of his car. Then, we came back here to, um... hang out."

Evonne didn't even attend Ashton Wellesley anymore.

What was she doing at Aleah's party?

And why would she hang out, let alone bump uglies, with Trick, a boy who had once made her friend's life a living hell?

Something fishy was going on. I pointed an accusatory finger between the two of them. "I'm not buying a word of what you two are telling me, but you guys lucked out because I have one hell of a hangover, and I don't have the brain cells to get to the bottom of this right now. Don't let the door hit you on your way out, Evonne!"

On the way up to my room, I heard Evonne release a sigh of relief and glanced over my shoulder to catch her giving Trick a small smile of gratitude.

Very suspicious indeed.

***

An extra desk and chair greeted me right as I entered second hour on Monday morning. They had been placed in a rather awkward, crowded corner near the back of Mr. Tilton's classroom. I winced for Nat's sake. She was going to have fit in third hour once she saw it. The new addition totally fucked with the symmetry and orderliness of the room's original setup, and my girl liked having all her ducks in a row to the nth degree.

"Don't tell me we have another new kid, Mr. Tilton," I drawled as I slid into my seat.

He seemed confused. "I beg your pardon, Cate?"

I nodded toward the new furniture in our classroom. "The desk and chair."

"Oh, yes," he nodded in understanding. "Kind of, I suppose, but it's only a schedule change. We have a student switching in from fourth hour."

"Didn't the deadline for schedule changes end weeks ago? I didn't know students were still allowed to switch classes so far along into the school year."

Mr. Tilton shrugged. "Either way, she's part of the second hour fam now. Her name is Lily Sinclair."

I froze. "Does she have red hair?"

"Why, yes. Do you two know each other?"

My face darkened. "I've seen her around campus. Among other places."

As though on cue, Zac and Lily strolled into class, hand in hand, five minutes before the bell. I pretended not to see them and started rearranging random crap on my desk. Zac took his seat next to mine. His gaze slid across all of my pens and papers to steal a glance at me.

"Did you know she was gonna be in our class?" I asked without stopping what I was doing.

"No, I just found out this morning. She kinda sprung it on me, too."

I didn't say anything.

"You okay?" he probed softly.

"Never been better," I responded sharply.

Lily was busy talking to Mr. Tilton about something at his desk. By the time they had finished, Mr. Tilton turned to Zac and asked, "Zac? Would you mind switching seats with Lily for the next two weeks? Her new prescription contacts won't be ready until then, and she has trouble seeing from the back of the room."

Zac paused slightly before nodding, but he was careful to keep his expression completely neutral.

"Oh, um... sure, that's not a problem."

Zac slung his backpack over his shoulder and stood up. He flashed Lily a heart-melting grin before heading to his new seat. Lily smiled back at him and scurried over to claim the chair next to mine. Batting those big green feline eyes of hers at me sweetly, she introduced herself, "Hey there! I'm Lily. I hope you don't mind this arrangement. I promise I'll be out of your hair once my contacts arrive!"

Her voice carried the honeyed, lilting twang of a good, old-fashioned Southern debutante, and she sounded so genuine that I had trouble believing this was actually the same girl Zac had warned me about.

"It's not a problem," I said stiffly.

"You're Cate, aren't you?" she stated with a friendly smile, "Everyone at Ashton Wellesley talks about you all the time. Goodness! Your eyes are, like, stunning. You don't see that color everyday. Beauty and brains, huh? Anyway, I'm so glad to finally meet you!"

I side-eyed her.

What was this bitch trying to do?

Compliment me to death?

"Uh... thanks? Nice to meet you, too," I murmured in noncommittal tones.

For the rest of class, Lily took every opportunity to cozy up to me, cracking self-deprecating jokes about herself and asking the most basic questions about Tilton's lesson just so she could flatter me some more after I answered her. She even gushed over the way I had arranged my freaking notes. If it hadn't been for everything Zac told me the day before, I would've easily believed that Lily was the kind of girl who barfed sunshine and pooped out rainbows. Annoying but harmless. The extreme discrepancy between Zac's version of Lily and the Lily sitting next to me was a bit unsettling.

Once the dismissal bell chimed, Zac came over to help Lily carry her backpack. I won't lie. I was jealous as fuck to see him hovering around another girl on hand and foot. Even if his every smile and every touch had supposedly been all for show, it took an excruciating amount of self-control to maintain my composure. Then, Lily had the nerve to peck him on the lips right in front of me. At that point, I was pretty sure the expression on my face was no longer a pleasant one. As they left together, Zac glanced over to me with a worried look. I held his gaze for a second, contemplating whether I should take his warning to heart and behave around Lily, or...

In the words of Sun Tzu, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."

A concept, I observed, that Lily seemed to understand very well in her attempts today to win me over and charm my socks off. It was pretty apparent she figured out that I was the reason why Zac decided to leave Aleah's party without her.

Otherwise, why would anyone go through the trouble of petitioning for a schedule change when fall semester was halfway over?

I wasn't looking for drama, but, honestly, it wasn't my style to sit idly by when a threat came my way. Granted, I hadn't made up my mind about Zac or figured out how to handle our weird relationship, but, in the meantime, Lily needed to know that she wasn't the only bitch at Ashton Wellesley who had read The Art of War.